Brazil

As part of the Urban Salon seminar series, I am organising a seminar to take place on Monday 23rd March 2015 at the LSE. The speaker, Christopher Gaffney, is going to discuss the actions of the Comitês Populares da Copa (CPC) or Popular Committees of the World Cup, which organised resistance movements and contested the hosting of the 2014 FIFA World Cup on Brazil. Discussions are provided by Isaac Marrero-Guillamon (Goldsmiths College, University of London) and Mike Raco (UCL), who would build their responses on their previous studies of the London Olympic Games experiences.

Please see below for more details.

Next Urban Salon event:

An anatomy of resistance: the popular committees of the World Cup in Brazil

Christopher Gaffney (University of Zurich)

Venue: Graham Wallace Room, 5th Floor, Old Building, LSE (Located next to the Senior Common Room)

Abstract: This talk will explore the formation, composition and political actions of the Comitês Populares da Copa (CPC), Popular Committees of the World Cup, that formed in twelve Brazilian cities in anticipation of the 2014 World Cup. The CPC was the largest network of resistance movements ever assembled for a sports mega-event and contributed to the discourse of resistance and radical street actions that marked the 2013 FIFA Confederations´ Cup. Each of the twelve nuclei was independent of the others but communicated and coordinated through an umbrella organisation called the Articulação Nacional dos Comitês Populares da Copa (ANCoP), National Articulation of Popular Committees for the World Cup.

I had a chance to be at the first conference on Mega-events and the City, and now the organisers are to host its second conference, taking place shortly before the 2014 FIFA World Cup. This should be an exciting conference for critical interrogation of mega-events.

OUTLINE: “The Second International Conference on Mega-Events and the City has as its objectives both the consolidation of this field of urban studies and the promotion of dialogue between researchers, teachers, students, and professionals from the public and private spheres, as well as human rights activists from around the world. The Conference aims to bring together those engaged in the study, planning, and promotion of mega-events, as well as in the conflicts that result from them.”

This is a commentary of mine posted on the LSE web site on 22 October, entitled From Beijing to Rio. It builds upon my research on mega-events in China to discuss lessons that can be learnt from China for Brazil’s forthcoming FIFA World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. I thank Candy Gibson at LSE Media for the help with editing.